Retailers are no longer losing customers to discounters, but they are continuing to lose spend to the competition due to the increase in shoppers' consumption of the discounters premium own-label offerings.

The findings were part of the Kantar Worldpanel's most recent figures released yesterday covering the 12 weeks ending on 22 May 2016.

Edward Garner, communications director for Kantar Worldpanel said: "In the past it has been perceived wisdom that shoppers are flocking away from the big four and over to Aldi and Lidl in particular. This is not what is happening now. The big four shoppers numbers have only dipped 0.2% in the last 12 weeks. In effect they have not lost shoppers. What they have lost is some of their shoppers spend which is down 2.9% and that is increasingly being shared with other growing outlets. Ninety-four per cent of Aldi and Lidl's shoppers still visit one big four outlet every four weeks."

Aldi and Lidl continue to expand with Lidl's growth up 14.2% and Aldi up 11.4%. While this growth is not surprising, what is surprising is that the growth in part is due to success of the discounters premium ranges which "are booming" according to Garner.

"This is not just about low prices - coupled with Waitrose's strong performance this period, the discounters are contributing to premiumisation. Aldi's premium own label Specially Selected has grown by 15% while Lidl's Deluxe range has grown by an impressive 65%," according to the Kantar report.

Waitrose and the Co-operative continue to make positive strides. Waitrose hit an all time high of 5.3% of the market share, while Co-operative's growth hit 3.3%.

Tesco has fared the best of the big four grocers and suffered the smallest drop in sales down 1.0%, Sainsbury's declined 1.2% while Asda saw sales slide 5.1% year on year.

Food price deflation remains at 1.5%, there is positive value growth of 0.1%. While it may seem minimal, it is something to be celebrated given he current market forces at play.